Empowered Patient Podcast

Rick Pierce, Co-Founder and CEO of Decoy Therapeutics. is using AI and machine learning to accelerate drug discovery and is developing broad-acting antivirals using peptide conjugates that target a shared invasion mechanism of hundreds of viruses.  The company is using small language models and a high-speed peptide synthesizer to dramatically reduce drug creation time. Rick predicts that the future of drug discovery will combine AI-driven design with advanced biological models, such as organoids, to better predict drug toxicity and efficacy. Rick explains, "Decoy Therapeutics was founded years ago, during the COVID era. And what we've learned during that was that in order to develop drugs rapidly and scale up their manufacturing, we needed to use machine learning and AI. And the drugs that we're looking at developing today as a result of that are broad-acting antivirals that can be used against multiple viruses. So one drug can be used against multiple viruses like Flu, COVID, and RSV." "So we chose antivirals as a space because viruses have what is called polypharmacology, and in plain layman's terms, what that means is that about 250 of these viruses share the same invasion machinery, meaning the way the virus enters the healthy cells is shared across all those viruses. It's slightly different in each of those viruses, but effectively for drug development, very similar."   "That allows us to use peptides, which are also alpha helices, to be able to design drugs with AI and machine learning that physically block the invasion machinery and thus basically the virus from binding to a healthy cell. Peptides are uniquely positioned as drugs for this set of viral targets. Again, it's a rich set of targets among 250 viruses across multiple viral families."   #DecoyTherapeutics #PeptideConjugates #BroadSpectrumAntiviral #AIinBiotech #NextGenMedicine   decoytx.com Download the transcript here  

Dr. Kumar Dharmarajan, cardiologist and geriatrician and Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer at World Class Health, is  bringing concierge healthcare to employees of self-insured companies.   The platform includes a global network of top-tier doctors and nurse navigators. Directly negotiating with providers reduces costs and reduces administrative and financial friction for patients seeking planned procedures. The model also reduces friction for physicians by providing them with complete patient records and ensuring prompt payment. Kumar explains, "We are a global, medically led center of excellence platform. So, by that, we have top doctors and top hospitals around the world, including the United States and many other countries, and we help patients access that network. We have pre-negotiated rates via our nurse navigators. We really believe in the power of nurses to help patients make healthcare decisions that may be valuable and important to them. And those nurses will work with the patient before, during, and after their care episode, whether that physician they access is local, in their own communities, or somewhere else around the world. And right now, we are partnering with large self-insured companies around the world and offering our product, in addition to the network they have through their usual insurer." "We are looking for employees of self-insured large companies. Our specific target has been largely knowledge workers, so these are employees in technology, financial services, and other knowledge industries. And the reason we feel that is one, our global network may be really appealing to them because many knowledge workers come from different parts of the world, Asia, Europe, Latin America, etc. And second, our nurses and our strong concierge model, which we built with experts from Stanford and Johns Hopkins International, have created a truly white-glove experience. So not only are they high-quality, highly qualified providers, top 1% doctors, hospitals around the world, but it's also a white glove service to help patients deal with all the administrative minutiae and challenges we all experience in healthcare. And we believe that's well powered and tailored to the knowledge industry." #WorldClassHealth #SelfInsured #ConciergeCare #NurseNavigators #DigitalHealth worldclasshealth.com Download the transcript here

Brent Dial, Founder and CEO of Beek Health, has built a platform that addresses patient information fragmentation by aggregating data from patient portals and providing direct access to lab testing. Health literacy is key to preventing chronic diseases, and AI is being used to scale the delivery of personalized health information. Identifying relevant biomarkers and early warning signs supports proactive health management that can alter long-term health outcomes. Brent explains, "Beek Health is re-imagining healthcare by finally putting the individual at the center of their health journey. While we talk about patient-centric or customer-centric or shared decision-making, it's not real in practice, and it's for good and for very clear reasons. There's information asymmetry, there's information overload, and then information is quite fragmented." "Currently, we have three subscription tiers. The first option is the basic plan, which gives you platform access to synthesize and connect with multiple patient portals, as many as you have. The average individual has at least two patient portals, and it's estimated you'll see 17 different providers in your lifetime. So that's a lot of data spread out across different systems. So, one, you can sync. We have over 40,000 endpoints or provider locations where you can sync your patient portal information in one unified dashboard. All the dashboards look different."  "Second, you'll have access to labs anytime you need them. And so labs are woefully underutilized for health tracking: 70% of diagnoses are based on lab results, so you can access them anytime you need to. We partner with LabCorp, which has over 2,000 locations, and you'll receive your results within 48 hours. In addition, we're adding cost navigation, cost estimate tools, and some more fun features on our roadmap, but that just gives you basic access for a year for $99."   #BeekHealth #HealthInYourHands #OwnYourHealthData #HealthTech #DigitalHealth #PatientEmpowerment #HealthcareReimagined #ConnectedHealth #FutureOfHealth beekhealth.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Asher Eghbali, Co-Founder of Fuerte, has developed a platform to address the significant communication challenges between healthcare providers and pharmaceutical industry representatives. The goal is to streamline this relationship by replacing inefficient scheduling methods, and eliminate miscommunication and missed meetings to reduce frustrations and wasted time. The app is designed to combine professional networking with social media elements, including user profiles and notifications, to help build stronger, long-lasting professional relationships that benefit everyone involved. Asher explains, "Within the life science companies and pharmaceutical reps, as we know, they're working very hard to commercialize medications and new drugs, new therapies that come out there that they want to get into patients' hands. But sometimes they have a very hard time scheduling and putting in time to go to the doctor's office. Traditionally, they conduct a lunch-and-learn session or a coffee consult, where they come on-site to a doctor's office or a hospital setting."   "Right now, to schedule that appointment, it's being done where the medical assistant or the office manager is writing down that individual's name on some kind of paper calendar, at most, maybe some kind of Google sheet, or a Google Meet account that they have within the office section. And that's the way that they're scheduling it. Healthcare reps are sometimes cold walking in, sometimes they're cold calling. They're putting in a lot of effort. They're working very hard to figure out how to get in and educate providers and their staff on new advancements." "What Fuerte hopes to do with a streamlined communication platform is make it very easy for the providers to find the reps and the reps to find providers to keep in touch with each other, to search each other by disease state, by therapeutic drug, by medical advancement, and to have a shared calendar system that they can keep in constant communication and contact." fuerteapp.com Download the transcript here

Scott Pescatore, Executive VP of the Rare Diseases Business at Recordati, is focused on rare and ultra-orphan diseases with high unmet needs by acquiring promising compounds from other companies and advancing them through development and approval. An example is the company's drug Isturisa, acquired from Novartis, which is an FDA-approved effective treatment for patients with Cushing syndrome, a rare endocrine condition. Raising awareness of rare diseases among physicians, patients, and the general public is a priority for Recordati to improve diagnosis rates and clinical trial participation, and to encourage more research and funding in the rare disease space. Scott explains, "We have two primary divisions at Recordati. One is our specialty primary care business, and the other is the rare disease business, which I have the honor and privilege to look after. And we have a very simple sort of work ethic or business mantra, if you will, and that's focused on the few. And we really dedicate ourselves to focusing on disease areas and patient groups and therapeutic areas that have a high unmet need and really low or limited options for patients. And really focusing on diseases and areas that are rare and considered ultra-orphan by the definitions in the US, where really there's a very small patient base. And that's where we began back in 2007, when the rare disease business was formed. And that's really what our focus has been since then. And we continue to focus on this segment of the market." "So Isturisa is really a fantastic product. We acquired this product through a deal we did with Novartis Pharmaceuticals back in 2019, and this product has FDA approval for patients who have endogenous hypercortisolemia with Cushing syndrome. So it's quite a nasty disease, but it's a very efficacious product. The product is what's considered a cortisol inhibitor in the blocks in a particular enzyme to help normalize hypercortisolemia in patients with Cushing syndrome. And Cushing syndrome, for those who aren't familiar, is a rare endocrine condition that really has a significant impact on patients' quality of life, on the caregivers, on the families. And the indication I mentioned was supported by quite robust phase 3 trials."  #Recordati #RareDisease #FocusedontheFew #CushingSyndrome #IMCD #CastlemansDisease recordati.com Download the transcript here